Fubini:The prompt for this competition was "The Best Day Ever..." She didn't draw a school dance, or friends, or getting a puppy, or any other normal kid thing. If this was her best day ever, then what were all those nights where she thought about the fact that her dad was someplace overseas in a war zone?

Just look at the other (state) finalists to see this: most of them make little to no sense from any sort of narrative standpoint. That's a "normal" kid picture.

All of you armchair art critics are missing out on the larger statement. This girl is trying to go for the same thing that Warhol did. She is continuing this boring, worn out tripe of soldiers returning home in an effort to make it lose its meaning.

By doing so, she is hoping to capitalize on your soullessness, so when she reprints the same image in four different colors you will all collectively lose your shiat and pay her untold sums of money to put her prints up in your small, sad apartments, hoping that it will bring joy to your empty lives.

Capo Del Bandito:BarkingUnicorn: Mixolydian Master: Not a single dusty onion allergy here. What am I missing? here's nothing particularly unique or compelling about this theme. A soldier returning and being greeted by a painfully relieved family member is nothing new. It is so common that it got worn out, and replaced with pets greeting the returning person.

What you're missing is empathy. That's why you sound like an art critic.

Empathy is nice and all, but if not properly maintained it overrides the logic.

I agree with Mixolydian there. It's commonplace and it loses it's meaning, sorta like someone who says 'sorry' to everything even if it's unneeded.

normally I'm hyper immune to this sort of painfully-obvious-patriotic-'MericaIsTheBestist thing to the point that it will piss me off but when I saw this one in during the voting I couldn't resist it. It think because it wasn't about waving the flag but about a little girl being happy to see her dad who had been gone for a big chunk of her life.

Christian Bale:I wonder if anyone's ever hugged the wrong kid who ran up to them by mistake.

When Mom and I attended my brother's graduation from basic training, we absolutely couldn't spot him in the group 200 big, buff, camo-clad onion heads until the drill sergeants had all the troopies run around the track. Then we spotted his huge, size 15 feet doing a familar but weird circular motion behind him as he ran, like he's got his own version of the Airborne Shuffle. "That's our boy!"

Excellent use of colours, space and an interesting yet clear take on the logo. Evocative without being maudlin. A genuinely universal theme. I think Maria I, Chestnut Ridge Middle School, NJ definitely has a future in graphic design. And the colours truly are superb.

Wow, initially I thought it was cute, kid gets her dad back and all the colour comes back to the world. Then I noticed the flag had colour all along. Do American kids honestly think the flag is that important? Well I suppose the sun and google are also in colour... American school kid trifecta? Sun, Flag and Google?

Todd300:Obviously the doodle is a mistake with it missing anything resembling a yellow ribbon as that is the 'unofficial official' way of saying you love a soldier. In this case, I find the hug-based imagery to be quite amature and, quite frankly, a cheap way of pulling on heartstrings. Needless to say images like this which are so American-centric could have disasterous consequences, or 'blowback' to true American interests around the world.

This is good, as a vet I have a bit more insight and I'll keep that to myself but remember American public relations are fickle as at best. It wasn't' too long ago that our soldiers were "baby killers that deserved death" by some people's standards.

HotWingConspiracy:Jormungandr: Do American kids honestly think the flag is that important?

You're expected to pray to it once a day as soon as you start school. I'm not making this up.

I thought they called it pledging allegiance. Though that would 'prolly explain it. Honestly the picture would've been better without the flag. Every country worth mentioning has some sort of armed forces so the kid running to the returning parent could've been pretty universal, except for the flag.

/In Canada our schools had a couple assemblies every year where we had to sing "God Save the Queen" and "Oh Canada"... that was about the extent of our nation worship.

Funny how a simple cartoon can cause such a division......haters (and they can be detected along party lines) seem to hate anything that might be anything near pro-military or might have any kind of religious overtone (the golden O with the rays of light coming down looks both like the sun and the wings of an angel).

[www.google.com image 774x387]Excellent use of colours, space and an interesting yet clear take on the logo. Evocative without being maudlin. A genuinely universal theme. I think Maria I, Chestnut Ridge Middle School, NJ definitely has a future in graphic design. And the colours truly are superb.

Pffft. Why do you and Maria hate the troops?

/"Graphic design" is just a codeword for "liberal propaganda creation".

karnal:Funny how a simple cartoon can cause such a division......haters (and they can be detected along party lines) seem to hate anything that might be anything near pro-military or might have any kind of religious overtone (the golden O with the rays of light coming down looks both like the sun and the wings of an angel).

MooseUpNorth:karnal: MooseUpNorth: karnal: (and they can be detected along party lines)

You're assuming a lot.

I really don't think so.

Using only my comments in this thread, and your predictive 'theory', tell me about me.

With the exception of your response to my comment, your only other one was:That it's such a common experience for kids is precisely why it's so heart-wrenching. Which was a response to someone who was commenting on how the image of the returning solider/father to his family had become "passe".

Some of the comments I was referring to are:

Honestly the picture would've been better without the flag.Nothing like burnishing the ol' corporate brand with a bit of PR for the militaryCan we at least bookmark this for the next time pearl-clutching conservative bloggers start pitching a shiat-fit over the doodles not being about whatever it is conservative bloggers think they should be about?Do American kids honestly think the flag is that important?

HotWingConspiracy:karnal: Funny how a simple cartoon can cause such a division......haters (and they can be detected along party lines) seem to hate anything that might be anything near pro-military or might have any kind of religious overtone (the golden O with the rays of light coming down looks both like the sun and the wings of an angel).

karnal:HotWingConspiracy: karnal: Funny how a simple cartoon can cause such a division......haters (and they can be detected along party lines) seem to hate anything that might be anything near pro-military or might have any kind of religious overtone (the golden O with the rays of light coming down looks both like the sun and the wings of an angel).

Come on Haters.....turn it up a notch!

What's it like to worship the military, but fear the government?

You tell me.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think it feels like taping a teabag to your head and screaming "TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION" at your representatives.

HotWingConspiracy:karnal: HotWingConspiracy: karnal: Funny how a simple cartoon can cause such a division......haters (and they can be detected along party lines) seem to hate anything that might be anything near pro-military or might have any kind of religious overtone (the golden O with the rays of light coming down looks both like the sun and the wings of an angel).

Come on Haters.....turn it up a notch!

What's it like to worship the military, but fear the government?

You tell me.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think it feels like taping a teabag to your head and screaming "TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION" at your representatives.

That's funny.....Would that be similar to sticking one's head up his own ass and repeating "I see nothing, nothing" over and over as the current administration slips deeper and deeper into scandals and intransparencies?

karnal:HotWingConspiracy: karnal: HotWingConspiracy: karnal: Funny how a simple cartoon can cause such a division......haters (and they can be detected along party lines) seem to hate anything that might be anything near pro-military or might have any kind of religious overtone (the golden O with the rays of light coming down looks both like the sun and the wings of an angel).

Come on Haters.....turn it up a notch!

What's it like to worship the military, but fear the government?

You tell me.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think it feels like taping a teabag to your head and screaming "TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION" at your representatives.

That's funny.....Would that be similar to sticking one's head up his own ass and repeating "I see nothing, nothing" over and over as the current administration slips deeper and deeper into scandals and intransparencies?

by the way - how's it smell up there? Like shiat, I bet.

Bahahaha

Yes, my teabag friend, these "intransparancies" will surely be the end of Obama. The American people are so outraged that his approval numbers have gone up.

HotWingConspiracy:karnal: HotWingConspiracy: karnal: HotWingConspiracy: karnal: Funny how a simple cartoon can cause such a division......haters (and they can be detected along party lines) seem to hate anything that might be anything near pro-military or might have any kind of religious overtone (the golden O with the rays of light coming down looks both like the sun and the wings of an angel).

Come on Haters.....turn it up a notch!

What's it like to worship the military, but fear the government?

You tell me.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think it feels like taping a teabag to your head and screaming "TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION" at your representatives.

That's funny.....Would that be similar to sticking one's head up his own ass and repeating "I see nothing, nothing" over and over as the current administration slips deeper and deeper into scandals and intransparencies?

by the way - how's it smell up there? Like shiat, I bet.

Bahahaha

Yes, my teabag friend, these "intransparancies" will surely be the end of Obama. The American people are so outraged that his approval numbers have gone up.

I agree.....they will not be the end of Obama....they already have key people in place to offer up to the GOP Gods as sacrifice when it gets too bad.

You should feel proud......We have become a society that does not care if our governement is corrupt, as long as "our" party is the corrupt one in power.

Also, from what I read this morning, Obama's approval rating is remaining steady in spite of the scandals.

karnal:With the exception of your response to my comment, your only other one was:

Okay, fair enough. I genuinely thought I'd written a second comment, but I guess I screwed that up. For what it's worth, though, your 'theory' doesn't predict me.

I absolutely love the image. But by the comments I would have posted if I wasn't an idiot, you likely would have placed me as a moderate-republican, or at least not a liberal.

I'm a Canadian liberal (moderate-left on the economic axis, moderate-libertarian on the authoritarian axis). A pacifist. I dislike displays of patriotism and loathe jingoism. I loathe gun culture but have owned four rifles and a shotgun at one time or another. Creepiest thing I've ever seen (no shiat raised hackles) was driving through a residential neighborhood in Bangor, Maine, where every house was displaying large flags in autumn of 2005. (It reminded me way too much of old pre-WWII.)

But here's the thing: the kid is very much wearing her heart on her sleeve in that image. She (like the far too many other kids in her situation) misses her Daddy horribly. Yes, he volunteered to serve, but she really didn't volunteer. Not really.

The rest of this is pretty raw speculation, as I've never faced what she has, but having taught kids in broken homes for a while, her art suggests to me that she's been wrestling with the notion that her father is away saving 'America', and so 'America' must be something more important than she is. One can either fall apart entirely at this point, or wrap oneself in the consoling dissonance that 'America' must therefore be the best thing ever and worth her (unwilling but unwilling to express that) sacrifice.

I don't know what rhetoric she's actually exposed to in Wisconsin, but I imagine it's been significant.

So no, I don't have a problem with her use of the flag in that picture. It's literally what makes that doodle so bloody heartbreaking. Especially since it's not clear if that _was_ her best day, or _will be_ her best day when it happens.

FACT: Monroe County in Wisconsin once had the highest teen pregnancy rate in the State (not sure if it still does). The town of Sparta - where the winner is from - has a team mascot of the Spartans. I once witnessed one of their wrestlers shiat himself on the mat at the Sectional tournament due to laxatives used to help make weight.

MooseUpNorth:karnal: With the exception of your response to my comment, your only other one was:

Okay, fair enough. I genuinely thought I'd written a second comment, but I guess I screwed that up. For what it's worth, though, your 'theory' doesn't predict me.

I absolutely love the image. But by the comments I would have posted if I wasn't an idiot, you likely would have placed me as a moderate-republican, or at least not a liberal.

I'm a Canadian liberal (moderate-left on the economic axis, moderate-libertarian on the authoritarian axis). A pacifist. I dislike displays of patriotism and loathe jingoism. I loathe gun culture but have owned four rifles and a shotgun at one time or another. Creepiest thing I've ever seen (no shiat raised hackles) was driving through a residential neighborhood in Bangor, Maine, where every house was displaying large flags in autumn of 2005. (It reminded me way too much of old pre-WWII.)

But here's the thing: the kid is very much wearing her heart on her sleeve in that image. She (like the far too many other kids in her situation) misses her Daddy horribly. Yes, he volunteered to serve, but she really didn't volunteer. Not really.

The rest of this is pretty raw speculation, as I've never faced what she has, but having taught kids in broken homes for a while, her art suggests to me that she's been wrestling with the notion that her father is away saving 'America', and so 'America' must be something more important than she is. One can either fall apart entirely at this point, or wrap oneself in the consoling dissonance that 'America' must therefore be the best thing ever and worth her (unwilling but unwilling to express that) sacrifice.

I don't know what rhetoric she's actually exposed to in Wisconsin, but I imagine it's been significant.

So no, I don't have a problem with her use of the flag in that picture. It's literally what makes that doodle so bloody heartbreaking. Especially since it's not clear if that _was_ her best day, or _will be_ her best day when it happens.

You are right - I probably would have pegged you wrong.....but then again, you are Canadian (no offense) and probably don't have a vested interest in our current government as someone who lives here might. I believe there are people that would love to see the demise of God and Country here in America.Your response was interesting and I agree on several points......I believe in the right to own guns but the whole "you'll have to take my gun from my cold dying hands" is a bit too much. But attacking the NRA and gun owners in general with layers and layers of regulation (just to get their way) is not the way to go either. As for your interpretation of the picture....I think America is worth saving/fighting for (as long as that is what we are really fighting for) and America is important.

If you go here:http://belfrycomics.net/view/all/Show+AllYou will find most of these artists are better than about 90% of the cartoonists featured.[If you clink on a link in Belfry with a X rating, it is your own fault, not mine.]

[www.google.com image 774x387]Excellent use of colours, space and an interesting yet clear take on the logo. Evocative without being maudlin. A genuinely universal theme. I think Maria I, Chestnut Ridge Middle School, NJ definitely has a future in graphic design. And the colours truly are superb.

Waldo Pepper:She was on one of the morning shows today. She said when her dad was away was when she was going through her daddy phase like most little girls do around 9-10 years old and she really missed him. She is going to go to Art school.

Glad to know I'm not the only one who thought that it just takes flags and military uniforms to win over Americans. Sometimes, I think it takes more of a man to stay home and be a father to his kids, rather than leave all of the upbringing to his SO. It takes a real hero to be a father that's always there for his family, not just to be some guy who is always away, making money, and visiting his children every now and then. It shows the priority of Americans: Work before family, government before children. But. Whatever.

I'd give up the entire world for my kids. No war, no government paycheck, no politics, no amount of patriotism are worth their love.

magicgoo:Glad to know I'm not the only one who thought that it just takes flags and military uniforms to win over Americans. Sometimes, I think it takes more of a man to stay home and be a father to his kids, rather than leave all of the upbringing to his SO. It takes a real hero to be a father that's always there for his family, not just to be some guy who is always away, making money, and visiting his children every now and then. It shows the priority of Americans: Work before family, government before children. But. Whatever.

I'd give up the entire world for my kids. No war, no government paycheck, no politics, no amount of patriotism are worth their love.